Chapter 14
THRALL
Her answer comes out breathless and broken, barely more than a gasp against my mouth as I kiss her with bruising intensity.
"Yes."
That single word breaks something fundamental inside me. Every carefully constructed wall I've built around my baser instincts, every layer of civilization I've wrapped around the primal core of what I am, shatters completely.
I growl against her lips, the sound vibrating through my chest and into hers where we're still pressed together.
My hands tighten on her hips, pulling her impossibly closer even though there's no space left between us.
I'm still inside her, still hard despite having just finished, and the Orc part of my brain that I've spent years suppressing roars to life with a singular, all-consuming demand.
Mine.
"Say it again," I rumble, pulling back just enough to look down at her.
Her dark hair is splayed across the pillow in wild disarray, her lips swollen from my kisses, her skin flushed and marked with the evidence of my mouth.
She's never looked more beautiful, and she's never been more completely, utterly mine.
"Yes," she whispers, her fingers sliding up into my hair, tugging hard enough to make me groan. "I'll move in with you. Today. Tomorrow. Whenever you want."
"Now." I rock my hips forward, drawing a sharp gasp from her as the movement sends fresh sparks of sensation through both of us. "Pack one bag. I'll send someone for the rest."
"Thrall—"
"Mine." The word comes out as a possessive snarl, and I capture her mouth again before she can protest the high-handed order.
I don't care about being reasonable or civilized or giving her time to think it through properly.
The Orc instincts I've spent my entire adult life controlling have taken over completely, and the only thing that matters is making sure she understands exactly what she's agreed to.
She's not just moving in with me. She's mine. My mate. My partner. The only person in this world who can command me, challenge me, reduce me to base instinct with nothing more than a look.
I pull out of her slowly, drawing a whimper of protest from her throat that sends satisfaction rolling through me in dark, possessive waves. Before she can complain, I flip her onto her stomach with effortless strength, my hands gripping her hips and pulling her up onto her knees.
"Thrall, what—"
"You agreed," I growl, settling behind her and running my hands up the elegant curve of her spine. "You're mine now, Romee. And I'm going to make absolutely certain you understand what that means."
I can see the goosebumps that erupt across her skin at my words, can hear the way her breathing speeds up. She arches back against me, presenting herself with an eagerness that makes my vision blur at the edges.
"Show me," she breathes, looking back at me over her shoulder with eyes that are dark and dilated with renewed want. "Show me exactly what it means to be yours."
The last thread of my control snaps cleanly.
I grip her hips hard enough to bruise and thrust into her in one deep, claiming stroke that tears matching groans from both of us.
She's slick and hot and still sensitive from before, and the angle lets me sink deeper than I've ever been, lets me fill her so completely that I can feel her body struggling to accommodate me.
"Breathe," I command, holding perfectly still even though every instinct is screaming at me to move, to claim, to mark. "Relax and breathe."
She does, her body slowly adjusting around me, and when she finally pushes back against me with a demanding little roll of her hips, I let the beast out completely.
I set a pace that's deep and powerful and utterly unrelenting, each thrust driving her forward until she has to brace her hands against the headboard to keep from being pushed into it.
The bed frame creaks ominously beneath us, the expensive mattress shifting with each impact, but I don't slow down. Can't slow down.
"This is what you wanted," I growl, leaning over her back and caging her in with my arms, letting her feel the full weight and size of me. "This is what you get when you agree to be mine. All of me. No restraint. No holding back."
"Yes," she gasps, her fingers white-knuckled on the headboard. "Don't hold back. Don't you dare hold back."
I bare my teeth against her shoulder, not quite biting but the sharp press of my tusks press against her skin. Mine. The word echoes through my head with every thrust, a primal drumbeat that drowns out everything else.
My hand slides around her hip, finding the swollen bundle of nerves between her legs and circling it with firm, deliberate pressure. She cries out, her whole body going taut, and I feel her start to tighten around me in warning flutters.
"Not yet," I command, easing off the pressure. "You don't come until I tell you to."
"Thrall—"
"You're mine now, Romee. And I decide when you come apart." I punctuate the words with a particularly deep thrust that makes her sob. "Understand?"
"Yes," she whimpers, and I reward her obedience by increasing the pressure of my fingers just slightly. Just enough to keep her balanced on that knife's edge without letting her fall.
I can feel my own release building again, faster and harder than before, driven by the primal satisfaction of having her here beneath me, accepting everything I am without fear or hesitation.
She's not intimidated by my size or my strength or the barely civilized beast that lurks beneath my expensive suits. She demands I unleash it. Commands it.
Perfect. She's absolutely perfect.
"Touch yourself," I order roughly, removing my hand and gripping her hip again to hold her steady. "Make yourself come on my cock."
She doesn't hesitate. Her hand slides between her legs, and I can feel the brush of her fingers against me where we're joined, can feel the moment she finds the right spot because her whole body goes rigid.
"That's it," I growl, my pace becoming almost punishing in its intensity. "Take what you need. Show me how good I make you feel."
Her fingers move in tight, desperate circles, and I can feel the exact moment she reaches her peak. Her body clamps down around me like a vice, rhythmic contractions that pull me deeper, and she screams my name loud enough that I'm certain everyone in the building can hear it.
The sound of her pleasure, raw and unfiltered, pushes me over the edge.
My hips snap forward one final time, driving as deep as I can possibly go, and I come with a roar that rattles the windows.
The orgasm crashes through me in waves that seem to last forever, and somewhere in the haze I realize I'm holding her so tightly that there will definitely be fingerprint bruises on her hips tomorrow.
I don't care. Let her wear my marks. Let everyone see exactly who she belongs to.
We collapse together onto the mattress in a tangle of limbs, both of us breathing hard and trembling with aftershocks. I roll us carefully onto our sides, keeping her pulled back against me, one arm wrapped possessively around her waist.
For a long moment, neither of us speaks. Her hand comes up to rest over mine where it's splayed across her stomach, her fingers threading through mine in a gesture that's somehow more intimate than anything we just did.
"I love you," I rumble into her hair, the words rough but absolutely certain. "I've loved you since you stood in front of that bar with an airhorn and threatened my meat skewers."
She laughs breathlessly, the sound vibrating through both of us. "I love you too. Even though you're a controlling, high-handed, impossible Orc who bought my company without asking."
"I gave it back."
"After I yelled at you."
"You're beautiful when you yell at me." I press a kiss to her shoulder, then her neck, then the spot behind her ear that makes her shiver. "You're beautiful all the time, but especially when you're putting me in my place."
"Good thing I plan to do that frequently." She turns her head to look back at me, her expression soft and open in a way I've never seen before. "I'm serious about the business though, Thrall. I'm not giving up my firm. Even if I move in with you."
"I know." I tighten my arm around her waist, pulling her more firmly against me. "I would never ask you to. I fell in love with your competence and your spine and your terrifying organizational skills. I want you exactly as you are."
"Even when I use those organizational skills to make your executives do trust falls?"
"Especially then." I nip lightly at her earlobe, drawing a startled gasp. "Watching you command a room full of Orcs twice your size is the most attractive thing I've ever seen."
She's quiet for a moment, her thumb tracing idle patterns over my knuckles. When she speaks again, her voice is softer, almost vulnerable.
"I've never had this before," she admits quietly. "Someone who sees me as an equal. Who doesn't want to control me or diminish me or take credit for my work."
"You've never had someone who deserves you before." I press another kiss to her shoulder, gentler this time. "But you have me now. And I'm not going anywhere."
"Promise me," she whispers, her voice trembling with something almost like hope, a vulnerability I've learned means everything.
"I promise you," I say, and I mean it with every fiber of my being.
The words carry weight, finality, the kind of absolute certainty that comes from someone who doesn't traffic in false reassurances.
I shift my weight carefully, mindful of the delicate woman beneath me, reaching past her shoulder to retrieve my phone from the nightstand.
The cool glass surface glints in the low lamplight as my fingers close around it.
"In fact, I'm making damn sure of it right now. "